Kendal Match Thread

[super_les_mcjannet]

This league is amazing. Spennymoor absolutely tore Kendal to shreds on Tuesday yet they beat the title favourites with plenty to spare today.
It happens, Darlo will bounce back, keep the faith chaps!

I think it's quite clear where we went wrong so whilst it was a dissappointing loss, it's certainly not the end of the world.

A few more twists before the season is done.

[quaker4life]

Is it just me or is Cartman turning out to be a bit of a Lemon?

Also in response to this comment if by "lemon" you mean a dud, then yes quite possibly but not through any fault of his own.

Obviously I realise he hasn't been as prolific for us as he was for Harrogate but this does not mean he is s**t, to even suggest it is nonsensical. Cartman is clearly a very good footballer and does not lack ability. However I find myself repeating what I said after Salford, it's no good hoofing long balls at him and hoping he might magically grow a few inches and this is exactly what we did again today.

The poor lad looked lost yet again and hardly saw the ball, it should come as no shock that his only goal for us so far has come from a penalty and the way we are set up it looks like he'll be waiting for another penalty till he gets another. He's only a little lad and hitting high balls at him is like trying to put square pegs in round holes, although he has the pace, to state the bleeding obvious, he does not have the aerial presence and will easily be snuffed out by a taller defender.

You can argue that he is playing for a different team, bigger crowds, needs time to settle all you like but the bottom line is unless we play to his strengths he's never going to be effective. Cartman feeds off balls from the flanks and passes hit in behind defenders for him to run onto, not aimless long balls hit high above his head and he is left chasing fresh air.

I've said before if we are going to favour a direct long ball game we may as well stick Hatchy up front at least then we have a target man to aim at.

The word I'd use to describe Cartman right now is simply "wasted".

[divas]

Regardless of us not always playing to his strengths he has missed 4 really, really good chances, some may call them sitters. There is no getting away from that. You'd expect a lad with 30 odd goals to put the chance he had today away. We played to his strengths in the Osset and Harrogate games. Hopefully it's a case of once one goes in they start flowing.

There will be times where we need to go a bit more direct, today for instance when we just couldn't get the passing going, not least because Kendal closed us quickly at every opportunity, in those games he's going to have to find a way to get involved - getting closer to Armstrong may help.

[princes town]

I hope the players aren't falling out like some of us. A bit of pressure and it's starting to show.

And to anyone at the game - what went so desperately wrong for us to go 3 down ?

For the first goal we had a corner and they broke quickly down the slope and we didn't have enough cover, second goal was hit over the top and chased onto and missed by our defence, third goal Brown hit a back pass too firmly and Jameson couldn't get to it. Last goal we were caught forward but to be fair was a cracking finish. The slope caught us out 3 times and I'm afraid an individual error by Brown for the 3rd.

First half today reminded me of the second half away to Droylsden where we lost 2-1 after leading 1-0 and Droylsden went down to 10 men. Looked as though the lads thought they only had to turn up to win. After the superb performance against Harrogate I think a few were complacent. We passed the ball about in dangerous areas and were caught out. I'm all for playing a passing game but Kendal were ready for it and pressured us from the first minute and doubled up on Mota & Thompson. Unfortunately we had no answer.

The first 15 kamikaze minutes finished the game today and it was pretty unbelievable, one cock-up is bad enough but when the 3rd went in it was surreal. It looked as though they'd all been out on the lash last night.

It was a total freak and we just need to forget it and move on to Tuesday.

I too thought we were complacent and agree with most of your post although I'd suggest Farsley last year was a better comparison. We need to do the basics right first. Some of the positional play of our team today was sobering to say the least. It was simply too easy for Kendal to get behind our defence for the first 2 goals. We didn't adapt to Kendal's 3 man CM. The only bright points were Watson and Mota (in part).

[JE93]

From listening on fans radio the first 15 minutes were horrendous from a defensive point of view. I was a little nervous when I saw the team sheet at the start of the game looking at the defense. Brown and White as a CB partnership are too slow for my liking. The pace of Hunter compliments either one of them massively and I think Hunter was a big miss in the first 15 mins.

The rest of the game sounded like we had a lot of harmless possession without being able to break them down. They played for the counter attack (why wouldn't you at 3-0).

Trying to take at least some positives from the game sounds like Watson had another good game. And as cliche as it may sound we did at least win the second half.

The people who are getting on the back of Cartman I urge go back and watch the highlights of the Ossett home game. When we got the ball on the floor and played the touches he made and the positions he took up were quality. As others have said, you don't score 30 goals in a season from being a mug. He is clearly a good player and I have faith he'll come good.

I've said before that I thought we'd need around 95 points to win the league, and for me this hasn't changed, we just have 1 game fewer to make up the points.

Going forward we need a reaction and a big performance against Farsley on Tuesday, it wont be easy, Farsley are no mugs. I hope Mitchell is back in the squad following his trial. If he is id go for a team of:

Jameson

Watson, White, Hunter, Mitchell

Thompson, Portas, Galbraith, Mota

Armstrong, Cartman.

[theoriginalfatcat]

MG had no choice but to bring him off and his reaction said it all really.

What was his reaction?

Brown, on occasions worries me - sometimes he just doesn't look good enough

[MikeinBlack2]

Cartwright was subbed for Hatch, which gave is an extra attacker when needed. Was Cartwright poor as well yesterday, or was it a necessary change? Will he feature again in his loan period do we think?

[super_les_mcjannet]

MG had no choice but to bring him off and his reaction said it all really.

What was his reaction?

Brown, on occasions worries me - sometimes he just doesn't look good enough

He was not happy and to be honest I wouldn't expect him to be. He came and sat in the stand to watch the 2nd half and spoke to a few around us and to be fair to Gary he said it wasn't good and didn't look to blame anyone.

One of those that happens now and again, hindsight and we could have won but as a team we let ourselves down badly for 15 mins.

[super_les_mcjannet]

Cartwright was subbed for Hatch, which gave is an extra attacker when needed. Was Cartwright poor as well yesterday, or was it a necessary change? Will he feature again in his loan period do we think?

Had no effect or impact on the game, which isn't surprising as all below par. Sadly he needs to learn how to play at this level and won't get lots of support with Thompson in front of him. Can we take the chance at this stage of the season with a player who is learning, I am not sure and would expect Brown or Mitchell to be RB on Tuesday night.

Could be a very good RB in the future though. Not fair as only seen both twice but Mars who played the pre-season game made a bigger impact. This is probably due to him being further down his development route.

[LoidLucan]

What we'll have to do now is refocus very quickly after two defeats in the last five games. There are very difficult games coming up and if we hit a proper wobble, I think the title could be taken away from us.

Salford, with the new management and the former Rammy players, seem to have got their act together and have a far less taxing run-in. To be honest, I don't think they will drop many points now as they're becoming a different proposition from the bottlers of earlier in the season. A few more days like yesterday and the game at Salford and it will be the dreaded play-offs for us and I wouldn't be brimming with confidence in a big, one-off crunch game. My fear is that Salford will now do a Curzon in grinding out result after result. They've got the players (and management) to do just that.

We'll need some big performances and for all the players to hit top gear if all that hard work getting us into pole position isn't to be wasted.

[MCFCDarlo3]

What we'll have to do now is refocus very quickly after two defeats in the last five games. There are very difficult games coming up and if we hit a proper wobble, I think the title could be taken away from us.

Salford, with the new management and the former Rammy players, seem to have got their act together and have a far less taxing run-in. To be honest, I don't think they will drop many points now as they're becoming a different proposition from the bottlers of earlier in the season. A few more days like yesterday and the game at Salford and it will be the dreaded play-offs for us and I wouldn't be brimming with confidence in a big, one-off crunch game. My fear is that Salford will now do a Curzon in grinding out result after result. They've got the players (and management) to do just that.

We'll need some big performances and for all the players to hit top gear if all that hard work getting us into pole position isn't to be wasted.

We need Hunter to stay fit too

[divas]

Salford, with the new management and the former Rammy players, seem to have got their act together and have a far less taxing run-in. To be honest, I don't think they will drop many points now as they're becoming a different proposition from the bottlers of earlier in the season. A few more days like yesterday and the game at Salford and it will be the dreaded play-offs for us and I wouldn't be brimming with confidence in a big, one-off crunch game. My fear is that Salford will now do a Curzon in grinding out result after result. They've got the players (and management) to do just that.

Salford are excellent at home and have been all season even before the managerial changes. They are dodgy away though and I have no doubt they'll drop points away from home against lesser teams.

[quakersam]

Salford have still got Spennymoor to come to Moor Lane and have to go to Scarborough (who are bang on form at the moment). Lancaster won't be a push over for them. They will drop unexpected points along the way and so will we (see yesterday).
We need to concentrate on ourselves, go back to basics away from home and I know it's a cliche, but start the game right and earn the right to play.

Yesterday we gave ourselves a mountain to climb and it was basically game over before we got going, but we contributed to our own downfall with not doing our defensive jobs properly. The third goal simply summed up our day, both Brown and Jameson at fault. Brown for a shocking back pass and Jameson for not just launching it up the pitch.

I've been praising Jameson for a while but he took a knock to his confidence yesterday after we went 2-0 down. Usually he'll come off his line and is an organiser, he just went quiet.

As others have said, the players to come out with credit yesterday were Watson and Mota. Watson ran his bollocks off all game and deserved his goal, I think the lad covered every blade of grass. Mota did well again but 2nd half had a great chance to smash it across the box, but decided to shoot into the hoardings.

But yesterday has gone, we'll hopefully have learned from the mistakes and we'll go again on Tuesday where we must get a result. Great turnout from Darlo fans at Kendal, 584 in attendance, assume over 400 Darlo

[D_F_C]

Echoed the disillusion regarding those first 15 mins, but we were lucky not to concede after that. After a header White was too busy complaining to notice someone had passed it to him.

I did say at the start of the game (as someone as previously mentioned) that there was no pace in the backline (perhaps Watson). I think for one of the goals Cartwright got easily outpaced by their no11.

Someone also mentioned their 'two' up front. Their number 10 dropped back into midfield after their first (2 mins).

Only Watson & Thompson come out with any credit.

My worry is that besides New Mills (twice) and Prescott Cables where I would fully expect us to pick up 9 points, Kendal is the lowest placed team to play.

Our run in is a lot more difficult then Salford.

On the Cartman POV, I didn't think the chance was as easy as people made out. After 12 mins yesterday we started booting it to Armstrong, who only had Cartman near him expecting him to pull off miracles. Their number 5 was decent in the air. Cartman is a ball-player who needs it as his feet but he does get in some good positions.

[theoriginalfatcat]

Teamtalk required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4x05Z3MSkQ

Just watched the "John Sitton team talk V Brentford"

Unlike Basset it's real and what a bollocking the players get! Incredible.

It's on the same Youtube page as Quakerz's link, I'd put a link but don't know how.

[Quakerz]

The link for the Sitton half time rant is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SN9le_U5SI

Anyone who can tell me who the assistant is who is whinging on at the start, gets a prize of fuck all.

An even better and shorter rant from Sitton - and yer can bring yer fackin dinner- is this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDIMWpcKqI

[divas]

It's that chap who managed that shitty little club down the road.

[Quakerz]

Correct, it was Tubby Tubster.

[QUAKERMAN2]

Like the rest of the Darlo fans at Kendal, no way did I see that result or the opening 15 minutes awful defending coming, but we have got to take a deep breath and remain positive.
For starters, looking at the league table, Salford have 11 games left of which only 4 are at home and 7 away. We know they are playing well at home and would not be surprised if the won them all including the Spennymoor game, but away from home they are not so convincing. We have 3 games in hand on them which theoretically are home games so potentially win these and it is 6 points ahead plus 1 point for goal difference.If our defence can get back to where it should be, and has been performing brilliantly all season, we are always capable of scoring goals. We know Browny had a poor game but Jameson was equally poor and was IMO more guilty with the 3rd goal than Gary Brown was.
Saturday was a massive wake up call, Cartman will score goals for us without doubt, he is still a very good player and just needs to get his first from normal play and he will be ok,a win at Farsley would be a great confidence boost going into the Bamber Bridge game on Saturday, but vital we get back to being tight at the back and we have a great chance of getting over the line ahead of Salford.

[theoriginalfatcat]

We know Browny had a poor game but Jameson was equally poor and was IMO more guilty with the 3rd goal than Gary Brown was.

I watched the video last night and agree with you 100%.

What was Jameson thinking? " Hmmm - I'll just stretch me leg out, have a little rest, tee up the ball, take a few steps back - I wonder what's for tea "

He's a fantastic goal keeper that's for sure, but what a cock up he made for goal three.

[princes town]

We know Browny had a poor game but Jameson was equally poor and was IMO more guilty with the 3rd goal than Gary Brown was.

I watched the video last night and agree with you 100%.

What was Jameson thinking? " Hmmm - I'll just stretch me leg out, have a little rest, tee up the ball, take a few steps back - I wonder what's for tea "

He's a fantastic goal keeper that's for sure, but what a cock up he made for goal three.

And cartwright was culpable with Brown for the 1st goal. Shoddy defending all round and we shouldn't get wrapped up with particular individuals. It was also noticeable that there was a massive disconnect with the central midfield who were too far advanced early doors. A complacent attitude against teams who will be up for it is a recipe for disaster. I'm also alarmed by the fact that there doesn't seem to be any obvious leadership on the pitch when things go awol. Martin can only do so much on the touchline.

[shawry]

MG had no choice but to bring him off and his reaction said it all really.

What was his reaction?

Brown, on occasions worries me - sometimes he just doesn't look good enough

He was not happy and to be honest I wouldn't expect him to be. He came and sat in the stand to watch the 2nd half and spoke to a few around us and to be fair to Gary he said it wasn't good and didn't look to blame anyone.

One of those that happens now and again, hindsight and we could have won but as a team we let ourselves down badly for 15 mins.

What disappointed me about Brown, wasn't his performance, we were generally dire, and to be honest, I almost left after the 3rd goal, it was the fact he went down the tunnel, as club captain I still feel he should have gone to the bench, got changed at half time and sit with the fans 2nd half if he wants, but seeing my club captain storm off really didn't help my mood.

[HarryCharltonsCat]

Let's be honest, thirty seconds after he goes off, your concentration is back on the game, and it doesn't matter whether he is sat on the naughty step or not. Can't understand getting upset about it.